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What’s in season during SPRING

We’ve made it to May, hurray! It certainly doesn’t feel like May to us here in Minnesota right now, especially with those white specks still flying around in the air, but the tide has got to change at some point, right?

The main Minneapolis and St. Paul Farmers Markets opened this past weekend, and Mill City Farmers Market will open next weekend. While we wait for more local farmers markets to open and start picking up steam, why not start the mental wheels spinning of things you’d like to cook using spring’s seasonal produce?

Recently I was digging around in my archives to see what I had written in the spring, and holy moley! It was like I discovered I’d done my homework ahead of time.

When I started this blog back in 2009, the main purpose was to help others work through their CSA share, as I was figuring out what to do with my own Harmony Valley Farm share. I was a blogging maniac, ambitiously writing up notes on many seasonal ingredients as they became available.

I’d forgotten that I’d written so many IN SEASON posts. I think I may have to read through these posts again myself, to reactivate my memory. (I’m getting old!)

These IN SEASON posts contain background information about the vegetable / fruit, suggested preparation methods and recipe links for you to reference as you shop at the farmer’s market or work your way through your CSA box. You may wish to read through them ahead of your farmers market visits to start some ideas percolating based on what you might find.

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The list below spans seasonal fruits and vegetables that you may find at your local farmers market or in your CSA share during the months of May and June. Consider this your cheat sheet for the season.

Most are cultivated crops, but some vegetables are foraged and only available for a few brief weeks. So if you see the foraged ones available, you may wish to snap them up as this could be your one chance to try them this year.

Here’s the list, in the rough order they appeared at our local markets (except for artichokes, which are not commercially grown in Minnesota). I also added this list to the upper right sidebar of my blog, for quick reference throughout the season.

Looks like I need to do an asparagus post, doesn’t it? Will put that one on the list, along with some others; I think I was going after the less common vegetables at the time, you know, like chives. Or something.

I’ll likely be referencing these posts throughout the season. I hope to build on this list and continue to fill in the blanks as the season progresses.

My favorites of the season are ramps, sugar snap peas and strawberries. I’m going to be doing a cooking demonstration at the Minneapolis Farmers Market on June 18th so I sure hope that the sugar snap peas and strawberries are available.

One thought on “What’s in season during SPRING”

I waiting for all of it…just craving anything really fresh & green. It's funny that you say artichokes since I always think of them as fall since that was the big season for them when I loved in Northern CA.